New Ulm weekly review., 1887-08-17

there were not so many wounded to take ont
of the wreck as there had been four hours be-
i fore. But in the meantime the country had
4 been aroused; help had come from Chats
! worth, Forest and Piper City, and as the
dead were laid reverenly alongside of each
other, out in the corn field, there were ready
/ hands to take them into Chatsworth, while
4 some of the wounded were carried to Piper
City. One hundred and eighteen was the
AWFUL POLL OF THE DEAD.
/ while the wounded number four times as
many The full tale of the dead cannot,
however, be told yet for days Chatsworth
was turned into morgue to-day. The town
i hall, the engine house. the depot were all
full Of dead bodies while every house in the
little village had its quota Of the wounded
There were over 100 corpses lying ia the
/ extemporized dead houses, and every man
! or woman was turned into an amatuer but
jealous nurse. Over in lumber yard the
1 noise of hammers and saws rang out in the
| air and in it busy carpenters were making
| rough cotins to carry to their homes the
! dead bodies of the excursionists who, twelve
hours previous, had left their homes full of
| pleasurable expectations of the enjoyment
they were going to have during the vacation
! which had begun. When the news of the
| disaster was first flashed over the wires
prompt aid was at once sent. DR.. Steele,
chief surgeon Of the Toledo, Peoria & West
ern road, had come on at once in special
train. and with him were two other surgeons
| and their assistants. From Peoria also came
doctors Martin, Baker, Flagloere and John
son, and from every city whence the
unfortunate excursionists had come from
their physicians and friends hurried on to
help them From Peoria had also came del
egations of the Redmen and the Ancient
Order Of United Workmen, number of both
societies being on the i'll -fated train, and SO
after 3 o'clock in the morning there were
plenty Of people to do the work that needed
such prompt attention. In the town hall
was che main hospital, and in it anxious rel
atlves and sorrowing friends sat and, fan
ming gently the sufferers faces, queried the
attending surgeons as they bound up the
wounds. and insisted that there must be
hope. Down in
THE DEAD HOUSES,
fathers, husbands, brothers. sisters, wives
and children tearfully inspected each face as
it was uncovered, and sighed as the features
We're unknown, or cried out in..anguish when
the well remembered face, sometimes fear
fully mangled but yet recognizable, was un-
covered The entire capacity of the little
village was taxed and kind hearted women
drove in from miles to give their gentle min
istrations to the sufferers No sooner had
the wreck occurred than scene Of robbery
began. A band of miscreants, heartless
y,
hand, and like the guerrillas who throng
battle field the night after conflict and
filch from the dead the money which they
received for their meager pay, stealing even
the bronze medals, and robbing from the
children Of the heroes, and other worthless
emblems of their fathers bravery, so last
night did the human hyenas plunder the
dead from this terrible accident, and
take even the shoes which covered their feet.
Who these wretches are is not known
Whether they were band of pickpockets
who accompanied the train, or some
robber gang who were lurking in the vicin-
ity cannot be said. The horrible suspicion
exists, and there are many who give it cred
ence, that the accident was deliberately
planned case of train wrecking, that the
bridge was set on fire by miscreants who
hoped to seize the opportunity offered, and
the fact that the bridge was SO far consumed
at the time the train came along, and the
added fact that the train was an hour and
half late, are pointed out as evidence of a
careful conspiracy. It seems hardly possible
that man could be SO lost to all the ordinary
feelings which animates the basest OF the
human race but still men who will rob dead
men; who will
STEAL FROM THE DYING
and will plunder the wounded, held down
by the broken beams of a wrecked car.
whose death by fire seemed imminent,
can do most anything which is base,
and that is what these tiends in human form
did They went into the cars when the fire
was burning fercely underneath, and, when
the poor Wretches who were pinned there
begged them @For Gods sake" to help them
out, stripped them of their watches and Jew
elry and searched their pockets for money
When the dead bodies We're laid out in
! the corn fields these hyenas turned them over
| in their search for valuables, and that the
| plunder was done by an organized gang was
proven by the fact that this morning out in
| the corn6eld sixteen purses, all empty, were
| found in one heap. It was CHASTITY plunder-
! ing, and had the plunderers been caught
this afternoon they would surely have been
lynched. There was one incident Of the ac-
cident which stood out more horrible than
ali of these horrible scenes. In the second
coach were a man, his wife and little child.
His name could not be learned to- day, but
| it is said he got on at Peoria When the ac-
| cident occurred the entire family of three
| was caught and held dgwn by broken wood
work Finally when relief came the man
turned to the friendly aid aid feebly said:
sTake out my wife first; Pm afraid the child
is dead So they carried out the mother,
and as a broken seat was taken off
i her crushed breast the blood which
welled from her lips told how badly